Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: September 2008

I just learned of this little feature yesterday.  I musta missed the official announcement (or maybe one has not yet been made)  ... but now, thanks to Shannon Gilmore, I know that I can automatically broadcast Active Rain posts on Twitter.

Here's what a Tweet announcing an AR post looks like:

Talking points:

1.  I feel like I'm copping out .... Just broadcasting an announcement of a new post instead of participating in a conversation.

2.  But then, if folks want to converse, they can follow the link to the blog post, and converse there.

3.  Without the back and forth of live conversation, it seems to me that Twitter just becomes a great big collection of feeds.

4.  See 2. above.

5.  @MoInColumbusOH wonders about including Localism-type posts in the feed to Twitter.

6.  I have a few local people following me on Twitter, and they may actually like the Localism stuff better than the industry stuff.

7.  I really need to get back to haiku-mode.

Save the date!  The Tenth Annual Eagle Rock Music Festival is almost here! The yearly FREE music festival with a unique and independent community vibe, takes place on Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock, on Saturday, October 4, 2008, from 5p.m.-Midnight.

Remember Colorado Boulevard is closed to through traffic before and during the fesitval.

Highlights include:

- Abe Vigoda, Crystal Antlers, Earlimart, Mika Miko, Princeton, Pizza!, Gangi, the Evangenitals and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (a project of IMA Robot's Alex Ebert) on the outdoor Emerging Stage, showcasing artists from the diverse variety of independent music scenes in and around LA's Eastside.

- A Global stage curated by Los Angeles-based collective Dublab Soundsystem, bringing soulful, global roots music ranging from jazz fusion with Build an Ark, Afro-beat inspired dance jams from Fool's Gold, acclaimed local favorites Very Be Careful and their unique takes on 50s-60s Columbian vallenato cumbias, and Domingo Siete (Son Montuno, Colombian Cumbia, Mexican Norteño and Bolero)

- A stage created by KPFK Divine Forces Radio DJ Fidel Rodriguez, featuring DJs, Filipino MC Bambu, genre-fusing Latin songstress Cava, and Pachamama (Estela)

- Neo-classical Indian world jazz by Arohi Ensemble, featuring Highland Park resident Paul Livingstone and virtuoso Indian guest musicians from Calcutta on sitar, sarod, and tabla (appearing courtesy of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Recording Industries' Music Performance Fund through the assistance of Professional Musicians Union Local 47)

- A stage presented by Eagle Rock-based recording studios The Ship Studios, Kingsize Soundlabs, and the Eagle Rock Bowling and Drinking Club featuring The Parson Red Heads, Radar Bros., The Flying Tourbillion Orchestra, Landy with The Black Pine, and Amnion; plus Light F.M., Le Switch, Divisadero, Pierre de Reeder, and Human Value at American Tire Depot

- A Kids' Stage featuring interactive sound exploration for kids with GLANK and Open Gate Theatre, and CA Combo, plus Ellen and Matt, face painting, hoop dancing,  and more

- Amplified instrumental music and quieter folk at the American Legion Hall featuring Upsilon Acrux, Emily Wells, Emily Lacy, The Cobra Lilies, The Antarticans and experimental improv with Jesske Hume/Joe Berardi (of Non Credo) plus more at Swork with One Trick Pony

- Award-winning spirituals with Forever Dedicated Gospel Group performing at the historic 1924 Spanish Colonial Revival Church of Christ

- Xicano progressive fusion with Aztlan Underground, plus hard rock and punk with Stab City, Nu-Tra, HDR, The Beeters, Le Face, and the Curs, plus the winners of the 2008 Eagle Rock High School Battle of the Bands at 7p.m. at the Bateman stage

- Selections from 20th and 21st century classical composers performed by youth at Renaissance Arts Academy

- Literary cabaret Late Night Snack: Short Theater and spoken word by Mike the Poet, author of I Am Alive In Los Angeles!, and The Bus Stop Prophet from 5-7p.m

-Live painting by Unification Theory at the Global Stage from 5p.m.-Midnight, with sales of the paintings to benefit Center for the Arts Eagle Rock

- Soundsight- at Oinkster- Bughouse brings you 6 different art installations that incorporate art, sound and technology. HEADTRIP uses four 42" LCD screens that surround the viewer transporting them to  various locales including the desert, beach, the mall and a forest. TALKING HEADS is an interactive tower
comprised of large human cutouts that users can dynamically record and playback sound bites. THE VISUALISER uses live performance by 2 musicians to create and transform video projected graphics. Other
installations include live screen printing onto vinyl records, live speaker painting and individual art pieces

In the past, on both Bloodhound Blog and Active Rain, (http://activerain.com/blogsview/391695/What-Do-Agents-Want)  I have said from time to time, that I certainly would not mind having a few experienced, top agents to help with the heavy lifting.

Although we've both been in the biz for over 25 years, Bob and I waited until 2000 to open our own office.  Dan Jordinelli, a long, long time friend opened his own office in 1986.  Both of our firms are successful and well known in the community.

A couple weeks ago, Dan approached us with a proposal to join forces.  Dan wants to get back in the field and do what he loves: Sell real estate.  Oh, and some of his agents want to come along.

Oh. My. Goodness.  Here is the opportunity to add several top-notch experienced people, just like that; and to build a real local, independent, powerhouse brokerage in Northeast Los Angeles, in this new post-bail-out-era of real estate.

I am deeply and profoundly grateful for my good fortune.  :-)

TypePad users:

Have you ever inserted an image in a blog post

Only to find that when you view the post, the image is much smaller than you intended??

And no matter what you do to resize the image, it stays too small?

Here's why:

TypePad's default stylesheet contains an image class style command, called "image-full" that re-sizes the displayed image in the blog post.

To change this, from the Edit Post window, click on the HTML tag. 

Find the image tag, and look for the part of the image tag that reads class="image-full"

Delete just that part of the tag.

Click Save to re-publish the post.

There, now the image displays at its full, original size.

I still have an unfinished mission:  To help a friend sell her handcrafted jewelry online.  Folks who have followed me here on AR for a while know this project has been hanging around for over a year.  :-)

I think I just got lucky.  Someone at her work told this friend about Etsy (rhymes with "Betsy")  http://www.etsy.com/index.php

It's sort of like Ebay for artistians and craftspeople. 

Anybody else ever hear of Etsy?  Any feedback?  Comments?

Right now I'm all over it.   If I can manage to avoid real estate/property rental problems for a few days, I just might have a store set up by next week.  :-)

UPDATE:   Before I posted this, I ran a Google search for reviews of "Etsy".  I didn't notice any Active Rain posts, and AR posts usually come up near the top....  But after reading Rich's comments. I ran an Active Rain search, and sure enough, another Active Rain member, Brittney Williams: has written a post about Etsy http://activerain.com/blogsview/473388/Etsy-com-The-Crafty .

ANOTHER UPDATE:   Here's a Squidoo Lens someone created with lots of great Etsy information: http://www.squidoo.com/etsy_store_crafts

And an Etsy Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lookandlearn/discuss/

A few other people evidently noticed some similarities between the country's current financial situation, and some of those Nigerian scam emails they keep getting,,,, and one of those people started sending this satirical email around:

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury
Henry Paulson

After burning a feed for your Localism community, you might want to display that feed on a WordPress blog.

(Note:  If you are publishing the same information on both blogs, you probably don't want to do it, but if your WordPress blog covers other material, go for it!)

Most WordPress Themes are widgetized, and if yours is, this is all you need to do:

At your WordPress Dashboard, go to Design - Widgets

In the Available Widgets list, click Add, beside the RSS item:

An RSS widget box will appear in the Current Widgerts panel.  Before you do anything else, click Save Changes, then click Edit.  (If you don't click Save Changes, the little box might vanish when you click Edit)

Open FeedBurner in a new tab or window.  Go to the Edit Feed Details screen to obtain the FEDD ADDRESS  of your feed

Back in WordPress, enter the FeedBurner address for your newly created Localism feed.  You'll need to type in the http://feeds.feedburner.com  part, then you can copy and paste the rest of the feed url.

The number of items to display, and whether or not to display content, is your choice based on the overall look of your WordPress blog.  Try different ways, and see what you like best.

Here is how the finished feed shows up on the WordPress blog.  Each article title is a live link back to the article on Localism :

This week's Featured Vendor:

Do you like mixed nuts? Check out Avitua Farms.  Avitua Farms has been with the market from the very beginning. Run by Joe Avitua, whose been farming in Exeter since 1985. He specializes in citrus, apples, stone fruits and grapes, farming nearly 100 acres.

When you come to Old L A Farmer's Market, Avitua Farms is located at the southern-most location on Ave. 58 close to Figueroa; you'll see a selection of nuts (pecans, macadamians, walnuts, etc.) and dried fruits (raisins, persimmons, many others), all grown at the Avitua farm.

The Old L.A. Farmers Market in Highland Park is open every Tuesday, from 3 to 8, on Avenue 58 between North Figueroa and Marmion Way, and along Marmion Way.

Here's something else to do to promote your Localism Community:  Burn a feed at Feedburner. 

Maybe it's just me, but feedburner feeds always seem to behave a little better than most blog's native feeds.

Go to Feedburner, sign in (or create a new account)

Paste in the URL of your Localism community, click next and follow the steps to create the feed.

Once the feed is burned, you can promote it on your other blogs and/or websites.

Last month, local bloggers and TV newscasters carried the story of ALZA the sign painter, Los Paisanos Market, and the city's order to remove the painted signage on the market. 

http://activerain.com/blogsview/645516/ALZA-Paisanos-Meet-City

In the last few days, a new mural has appeared on the side of Los Paisano's building.

 The "Wild Style" letters spell out RESPECT.

The previous mural that was painted over: